Only three percent of recruiters say they can still see companies eliminating senior management jobs, according to a January survey of 214 executive recruiters. In that same survey, 64 percent are confident or very confident that the executive employment market will improve during the next six months, up 10 points from December 2009.
ExecuNet, a private membership network for senior business executives and those who recruit them, compiles the Recruiter Confidence Index (RCI) based on a monthly survey of executive search firms. It is recognized as a leading indicator for the economy and the executive job market.
Mark Anderson, president and chief economist of ExecuNet, says he started to notice a turn-around in about May or June of last year.
“Our number of searches were up even more and we saw an increased landing of our executive members,” says Anderson. He notes that even though executive jobs have jumped higher coming out of past recessions, this will be a slower rebounding process.
“We have been tracking recruiter confidence since 2003 after that recession and executive jobs were increasing more rapidly than they are at this point…The quarterly increase in 2009 was 5.7 percent, but the annual average is not going to be at this rate,” he says.
Unlike the massive layoffs in January 2009, 33 percent of executive search firms report hiring to meet the recent assignment growth. Twenty-one percent of recruiters say companies will be adding new executive jobs, up from 14 percent in December.
According to Anderson, there are several signs in the economy that point to further executive job growth. “We are seeing hiring increases quarter by quarter by quarter. It will definitely be growing in the coming year,” Anderson adds.
However, as more and more companies are willing to take calls from recruiters, they could be facing issues of retention. “As the recovery happens, retention is going to be a major issue for boards,” he says. “There is a disconnect between company attitudes and executives and if they don’t pay attention to this issue, they could lose some key players as the company rebounds.”
The ExecuNet RCI survey results show recruitment at the highest level of confidence since May 2008.